THE ACNA BOMBSHELL: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO Mt. 18?

EDITORIAL

By David W. Virtue, DD

Nov. 5, 2025

It landed like a bombshell in the ACNA cathedral Narthex.

ACNA Archbishop Stephen Wood has been accused of sexual misconduct, abuse of power, plagiarism and much more. Some 3,500 words have been written blowing up a single orthodox archbishop in a small denomination by one of America’s leading newspapers.

Why did it merit such printers ink? A reporter and photographer were sent to dig it all up from willing talkers.

So, the first question is why didn’t these aggrieved persons, not go first to their bishop and tell their story in keeping with Mt. 18:15-20.

The second question is, did they go to their bishops to tell their story and did the bishops circle the wagons to prevent it from leaking out?

Was Wood’s election pre-determined by insiders who wanted him badly enough to ignore the charges?

Why didn’t Wood reveal some of these charges before he was given the nod? He must have known that stuff like this would leak out sooner or later and he would have to answer to us, his loyal constituents?

Is the ACNA House of Bishops any less duplicitous than TEC’s House of Bishops in bobbing and weaving around the canons?

Why has it taken nearly a year and a half to bring Bishop Stewart Ruch III to trial to face charges of disobedience or willful contravention of the canons of the Church and conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense?

What if it is all a stitch up of Archbishop Wood and there is simply no truth to any of it? Possible but unlikely. What would be the motive to undo a man for no other reason than you disliked him. Lying amounts to perjury and a violation of the 9^th Commandment about bearing false witness.

Wood has stepped back from both his archbishop role and retired from his parish. The truth is he had no option. The charges are horrendous.

There is some chance he could do a “he said/she said” over the sexual touching with the divorced woman and perhaps win that part of the charge, but the other charges of abuse of power by fellow priests goes right to the heart of his pastoral abilities.

John Stott the doyen of preachers is on record saying, “At every step of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend.”

Apparently, this was not a lesson Archbishop Steve Wood learned.

END